Brazil said it will breed huge numbers of genetically modified mosquitoes to help stop the spread of dengue fever, an illness that has already struck nearly 500,000 people this year nationwide, killing 74.
The Brazilian ‘marvellous city’ of Rio do Janeiro officially declared it is suffering an epidemics emergency of the mosquito transmitted disease of dengue, following confirmed reports of over 50.000 cases so far this year, and 500 in the last week.
Paraguay’s Vice president Federico Franco and his wife lawmaker Emilia Alfaro are in hospital in the capital Asuncion following infection symptoms of the mosquito transmitted dengue which is very common in tropical areas during the rainy season.
The Bolivian province of Santa Cruz has declared a sanitary emergency in the region following an outbreak of the mosquito transmitted dengue fever which has already caused at least six deaths, according to local officials.
Some fifty Brazilian cities are exposed to serious outbreaks of dengue during the austral summer and another 236 are on ‘alert’ for the same reason, according to a paper presented Monday by Brazil’s Health minister Alexandre Padhilla.
By infecting mosquitoes with bacteria from flies that commonly live in kitchen fruit bowls, researchers have stopped the insects spreading the dengue virus.
Mercosur will consider next June adopting a regional joint program to combat the mosquito transmitted dengue disease, which has become endemic in the group with the exception of Uruguay, and which has forced landlocked Paraguay to declare a national emergency.
Paraguay’s Minister of Public Health Esperanza Martinez acknowledged on Tuesday that the current mosquito transmitted dengue epidemic is far more severe than that of 2007, considered the worst in recent times, and claimed she has had limited support from city councils
The dengue disease transmitted by the ”Aedes aegypti” mosquito is again on the attack in most South American countries with Paraguay reporting 18 deaths and Bolivia, 20 and thousands infected so far this year.
An outbreak of dengue fever across much of Latin America has killed 31 people since the start of the year and is showing no sign of relenting. Endemic in several countries there’s growing concern following the discovery of a very “aggressive” strain in Peru.